Mattice gave both sides the option of filing supplementary briefs to answer questions he posed in a July 26 hearing. He said he would decide as quickly as possible after receiving them whether to grant the preliminary injunction to halt the prayers while he makes a final ruling.

In Sunday's brief, Flores argues that the court should consider a new prayer policy passed on July 3.

"There was not only a lack of an attempt to repeal any past practices, but the current defendant's resolution actually embraced past practices," Flores wrote. "The videos show no change in the manner in which the defendant's meetings begins [sic], and the prayers remain especially sectarian."

In its new policy, the commission keeps the prayers but opens them up to ministers across Hamilton County on a first-come, first-served basis.

Flores said the policy is a "sham."

He also answered another question Mattice posed to his clients. Mattice wanted to know if Coleman and Jones think the Constitution requires governments to be nonreligious.

In Jones' July 26 testimony, he said he doesn't.

Citing a U.S. Supreme Court decision, County of Allegheny v. ACLU, Flores quoted, "A secular state, it must be remembered, is not the same as an atheistic or antireligious state. A secular state establishes neither atheism nor religion as its official creed."

As of press time, the county had not filed an optional brief, though it has through Wednesday's deadline to do so.

Mattice asked one of the county's attorneys, Stephen Duggins, for a brief explaining whether the policy commissioners passed on July 3 necessarily will yield sectarian prayers.

Mattice said in the hearing that he's found at least two instances in which the federal appeals court that deals with Tennessee cases interpreted a key U.S. Supreme Court decision on legislative prayer, Marsh v. Chambers, to allow only nonsectarian prayer.

"That's only a couple, there may be others," Mattice said.

Basil Marceaux Sr. filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit Monday. Mattice denied motions of two previous would-be intervenors, Charles Wysong and June Griffin.